Several times I’ve been asked about my recommendations for diverse books, so I made a list. This list is by no means complete nor organized in any profound way. I’m sure that I’m leaving off LOTS of books, but these are the ones I’ve managed to read (in between my writing schedule) and have completely enjoyed. Hopefully, it serves as a nice starting point for your further exploration.
Middle Grade
- Nothing Up My Sleeve by Diana Lopez
- The Surrender Tree by Margarita Engle
- One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia
- The Smoking Mirror (Book One) by David Bowles (Pura Belpre Honor book; 2016)
- Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper
- Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez
- Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai
- Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson
- The Magnificent Mya Tibbs by Crystal Allen
- Mountain Dog by Margarita Engle
- Moving Target by Christina Diaz Gonzalez
- Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan
- It Ain’t So Awful, Falafel by Firoozeh Dumas
- The Distance Between Us (Young Readers Edition) by Reyna Grande
- Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Adriana Dominguez
- The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
- Lucky Luna by Diana Lopez
Young Adult
- Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the World by Benjamin Alire Saenz
- Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (Pura Belpre winner)
- I’m Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez.
- Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero
- Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
- Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina
- The Living by Matt de la Peña
- Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older
- Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Adult Selections
- The Line Becomes a River (Dispatches from the border) by Francisco Cantu
- Everyone Knows You Go Home by Natalia Sylvester
- Woman Hollering Creek and other stories by Sandra Cisneros
- Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter by Mario Vargas Llosa
- The Distance Between Us: A Memoir by Reyna Grande
- In the time of Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
- My Beloved World by Sonia Sotomayor (non fiction)
- The Water Museum by Luis Alberto Urrea
- One Day I’ll Tell You the Things I’ve Seen by Santiago Vaquera-Vasquez
- Drown by Junot Diaz
- The Devil’s Highway (nonfiction) by Luis Alberto Urrea
- The Book of Unknown Americans by Christine Henriquez
- The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie
- The Toughest Indian in the World by Sherman Alexie
- Alabanza: New and Selected Poems 1982-2002 by Martín Espada
- The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women by Judith Ortiz Cofer
- Chasing the Sun by Natalia Sylvester
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